When the Bureau of Reclamation discovered that Walker River Dam was constructed on a seismic fault, fixing the dam became a high-priority safety issue. Upon further review of the dam, U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFW) noted that the original 1930s construction did not include a fish passage. Without a fish passage, the Lohontan cutthroat trout, an endangered species, could not pass through the dam for spawning. Before repairing the dam for seismic safety, USFW mandated a plan for inclusion of a fish passage in the revised design.

The dam, originally constructed with the purpose of impounding river water to be used by the reservation for irrigation and flood control, was no longer approved to be at full capacity. Located in rural Schurz, Nevada, this left the Northern Palute people with limited resources, resulting in a stagnant economy for the tribe. Based on needs outlined in an environmental impact statement, we were hired to perform design services for the fish passage and accompanying bridge that would return Walker Reservoir to full capacity.

The renovated structure features a roughened channel fishway that employs boulder weirs for energy dissipation and a vertical slot fishway structure to accommodate a wide range of water surface elevations. The roughened channel required extensive excavation to achieve the required slope to connect to Walker River downstream of the dam while highly erosive soil materials required careful attention to erosion control.